This is not political, it is about 9-11 and believe me you want
to read this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here
is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written
following 9-11:

"On
the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of
Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains
parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the
captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All
Business" look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It
was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "Allairways
over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic.
Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination."

"No
one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious
situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain
determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, New
Foundland. He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian
traffic controller and approval was granted immediately--no questions
asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in
approving our request.

"While
the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message arrived
from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York
area. A few minutes later word came in about thehijackings.

"We
decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told
them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land
at the nearest airport in Gander, New Foundland to have it checked
out.

"We
promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There was much
grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty minutes
later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was 12:30 PM! .... that's
11:00 AM EST.

"There
were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the
world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S. After we
parked on the ramp, the captain made the followingannouncement:
"Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around
us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are
here for another reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we
knew about the situation in the U.S. There were loud gasps and stares of
disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander
told us to stay put.

"The
Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was allowed
to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near any
of the air crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically,
look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so more
planes landed and Gander ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the
world, 27 of which were U.S. commercial jets.

"Meanwhile,
bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first
time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in
New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to use their cell
phones, but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in
Canada. Some did get through, but were only able to get to the Canadian
operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S. were either
blocked or jammed.

"Sometime
in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center
buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a
crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted,
not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly calm. We had only
to look out the window at the 52 other stranded aircraft to realize that
we were not the only ones in this predicament.

"We
had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the planes
one plane at a time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to
deplane would be 11 am the next morning. Passengers were nothappy,
but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much noise and
started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the airplane.

"Gander
had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory
servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately we had no medical
situations to worry about. We did have a young lady whowas
33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night
passed without incident despite the uncomfortable sleeping
arrangements.

"About
10:30 on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We
got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through
Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red Cross.

"After
that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken in
vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were going. We
learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a population of
10,400 people and they had about 10,500 passengers to take care of from
all the airplanes that were forced into Gander! We were told to just relax
at the hotel and we would be contacted when the U.S. airports opened
again, but not to expect that call for a while.

"We
found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to
our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started.

"Meanwhile,
we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander were
extremely friendly. They started calling us the "plane people." We enjoyed
their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended up having a
pretty good time.

"Two
days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander airport.
Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out what
they had been doing for the past two days. What we found out was
incredible.

"Gander
and all the surrounding communities (within about a 75 Kilometer radius)
had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large
gathering places. They converted all these facilities tomass
lodging areas for all the stranded travelers. Some had cots set up, some
had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up.

"ALL
the high school students were required to volunteer their time to take
care of the "guests." Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called
Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a
high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was
arranged. Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were
taken to private homes.

"Remember
that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right across
the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility. There was a dentist on
call and both male and female nurses remained with the crowd for the
duration.

"Phone
calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to
everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered "Excursion"
trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes andharbors.
Some went for hikes in the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to
make fresh bread for the guests. Food was prepared by all the residents
and brought to the schools. People were driven torestaurants
of their choice and offered wonderful meals. Everyone was given tokens for
local laundry mats to wash their clothes, since luggage was still on the
aircraft. In other words, every single needwas
met for those stranded travelers.

"Passengers were crying while telling us these stories.
Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were
delivered to the airport right on time and without a single passenger
missing orlate.
The local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts of each
and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on and when all
the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything beautifully. It was
absolutely incredible.

"When
passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everyone
knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their stay,
impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight back to
Atlanta looked li ke a chartered party flight. The crew just stayed out of
their way. It was mind-boggling. Passengers had totally bonded and were
calling each other by their first names, exchangingphone
numbers, addresses, and email addresses.

"And
then a very unusual thing happened. One of our passengers approached me
and asked if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We never,
ever allow that. But this time was different. I said "of course" and
handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what
they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the
hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers. He
continued by saying that he would like to do something in return for the
good folks of Lewisporte.

"He
said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our
flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide college
scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte. Heasked
for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with
donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and
addresses, the total was for more than $14,000!

"The
gentleman, a MD from Virginia, promised to match the donations and to
start the administrative work on the scholarship. He also said that he
would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as
well. As I write this account, the trust fund is at more than $1.5
million and has assisted 134 students in college education.

"I
just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right now. It
gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a far away place
were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in onthem.
It reminds me how much good there is in the world."

"In
spite of all the rotten things we see going on in today’s world this story
confirms that there are still a lot of good and Godly people in the world
and when things get bad, they will come forward.

This entry was posted on 12/07/2012 08:34:00 AM
and is filed under
9/11
,
CANADA
.
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4
comments:

ferschitz
said...

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/gander.asp

Mostly true, including the Delta 15 Scholarship fund.

Why this is being sent around now is the question. Guess it's a slow news day.

Sounds like those good citizens of Gander were a buncha CommieSochulists to me, however. Sharing all their stuff, opening their homes to slackers who didn't have the means to "support" themselves in this situation. What would the citizens of Galts Gulch have to say about these moochers on airplanes that expect someone else to help, feed & care them? The horror!! They even had FREE medical & dental assistance, where needed! The horror!! Commies! Socialists! Nazis! Can't they pull themselves up by their bootstraps & live on berries & leaves that they pick up off the ground in Gander?

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